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Roller derby growing in popularity in Alamogordo, around the state

By Janessa Maxilom

jmaxilom@alamogordonews.com @janessa_speaks on Twitter

Posted:
11/11/2013 08:31:10 PM MST

Team Derbal Remedy smash into each other during a mash-up at the New Mexico State University-Alamogordo Tays Special Events center on Saturday. The white team emerged victorious. (Janessa Maxilom/Daily News)

Whipping around corners and crashing violently into one another, the women of Derbal Remedy put on a thrilling show for spectators on Saturday.

Derbal Remedy, the local roller derby team, displayed their skills and strength during their first "mash-up bout" at the New Mexico State University-Alamogordo's Tays Special Events Center. Derbal Remedy is Alamogordo's first womens flat track roller derby team.

It's a tough, fast-paced contact sport that could make any football player cringe, but these ladies love it. In fact, the name itself explains just what roller derby means to them -- a chance to escape from a monotonous routine while pushing themselves to physical excellence.

"I absolutely love it," Ashley Helveston, a team captain, said of the sport. "I mean, I look forward to it. It's the one time out of the week where I'm my own person. I'm away from work, I'm away from school, kids and everything else. And I really get to focus on doing something for myself, which is why I've stuck with it for as long as I have."

Helveston said she has been a member of the team since its inception in 2011. She said the wonderful thing about roller derby is that anyone can learn to play it.

"The great thing about it is, it is a sport that is for everybody," Helveston said. "We have women from all different backgrounds and all different shapes and sizes playing."

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Halveston said a person's skating experience doesn't factor into learning the sport since the team is willing to teach people how to skate and play the game at the same time.

"We have girls that have never been on roller skates before that have come out and are now some of the best players on our team," she said. "I just encourage people to try it."

Chelsea Townsend, another team captain, said the sport was not only fun, but also empowering.

"I joined Derbal Remedy four months ago. This is what gets me through my week," Townsend said. "When I wake up in the morning, knowing that I'm a roller derby girl and I have practice at night, that puts a smile on my face."

Coach Carl Smith said the team practices three times a week at the old roller hockey rink located next to the Boys & Girls Club of Otero County. He said the team trains for approximately eight hours each week.

"These are real athletes playing a real sport," Smith said.

Smith said roller derby is a contact sport that involves two teams skating in the same direction around a track. Plays are called jams, or match-ups, and teams score points when a player called a jammer passes and then laps blockers from the opposing team. Teams work together to help their jammer make points while also blocking the competitions jammer.

Smith said his goal was to promote roller derby while also expanding the sport throughout the region. He even said he's planning to create a men's team.

"We want to go ahead and provide an alternative entertainment source, as well as an alternative source of fitness, for the community that we have here," he said.

Smith said it was a feat to have the mash-up held at the NMSU-A Tays Center, and he was grateful to the city and the school for allowing the team to play there.

"It is a huge testament to the city of Alamogordo," he said.

Smith said it was a yearlong process to get the sporting event set up at NMSU-A, and the team worked hard to make it possible. He said the women on his team often get involved in community activities to promote the sport.

"We are very successful in at least participating in a type of community activity at least once a month," he said. "We really try to keep ourselves busy and we know that if we want the community to come to us and support us that we have go out and support other people in the community as well."

Smith said having the communities' support is important for a grassroots-based team that is trying to grow and flourish in the area.

"Many places that we go to have matches in little warehouses or at an outdoor track," he said. "It's a beautiful thing that the city of Alamogordo and NMSU-A actually supported us this much to where they trusted that this was going to be a legitimate sporting event."

According to Smith, there are eight teams in the state and Derbal Remedy has already played against two.

"We actually competed against Taos and Clovis," he said. "We lost to Taos and beat Clovis."

Smith said the team is always looking to broaden its horizons and play against other teams in the region. He added that the team is currently communicating with teams from in Arizona, Colorado and Texas in hopes of finding good competition to train and play against.

"So, we're just going to continue to skate hard, tell people about what we do and try to get them involved," he said.

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